Russian troops amass on border as Kyiv authorities reformulate operation plans (LIVE UPDATES, VIDEO)
UKRAINE, Slavyansk : A member of the Ukrainian special forces takes position at an abandoned roadblock in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on April 24, 2014. Ukraine's military launched an assault on the flashpoint rebel-held town of Slavyansk, sending in armoured vehicles and a helicopter, AFP journalists in the town reported. Several armoured personnel carriers drove past an abandoned rebel roadblock in flames to take up position at the entry to the town. AFP PHOTO/KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV
© AFP
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Editor's Note: On April 22, interim President Oleksandr Turchynov announced that Ukraine would restart its anti-terror operation to quell Russian-backed separatist movements in Donetsk Oblast. The operation had been put on hold after quadrilateral talks between the U.S., EU, Russia, and Ukraine in Geneva led to an agreement whereby separatists in eastern Ukraine were requested vacate public spaces and buildings, and surrender their arms. The insurgents refused to comply with the stipulations of the Geneva Statement, and, over Easter weekend, seized several more buildings in Donetsk Oblast.***
On the morning of April 24, Ukrainian troops repelled a separatist attack on a military base in the city of Artemivsk, Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian forces also retook the city council building in the city of Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, which had been controlled by insurgents since April 13.
On April 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today that Russia will be forced to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine if they are attacked directly.
The Kyiv Post will be live blogging the anti-terrorist operation as it continues in eastern Ukraine.
Russia's rep to OSCE hopes OSCE monitoring mission to be sent to Sloviansk immediately
Russia's Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrei Kelin said that he has raised the issue of sending an OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine's Slovyansk and that he hoped it has already arrived there.
"I raised the issue today in the morning during a meeting with a range of ambassadors to the OSCE that it is necessary to send monitors of the mission to Slovyansk immediately. I hope they are already there," Kelin said on the Rossiya 24 (Russia 24) TV channel.
Monitors of the OSCE mission have visited Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the diplomat said.
"It should be said that for now I see quite an honest story regarding what they see and what is happening," Kelin said.
Putin spokesman: Actions of Kyiv authorities cast doubt on coming presidential elections
21:15 -- The Actions of the Kyiv authorities in eastern Ukraine cast doubt on the coming presidential elections in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Such situational developments in Ukraine and such criminal actions of those, who are in Kyiv - even now they challenge a priori the legitimacy of the elections scheduled in May," Peskov told reporters in St. Petersburg on Thursday, Interfax reported.
Putin spoke during a media forum of the All-Russia People's Front on Thursday, Peskov said. "The main thing is namely the crime of using armed forces against the country's ethnicities," the spokesman said.
"What is happening in Slovyansk can be interpreted in two ways - on the one hand, as an attempt to disrupt the May elections, on the other, as an aspiration to hold them amid any conditions," Peskov said. "Kyiv's actions do not add legitimacy to the authorities in both cases," he said. -- Kyiv Post, Interfax
Chief editor of Russia Today tweets "Ukraine. R.I.P."
8:57 p.m. -- Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of Russia Today, the Kremlin's flagship English language news organization, tweeted "Ukraine. R.I.P." early in the morning on April 24. -- Isaac Webb
7:46 p.m. -- Kevin Bishop, BBC's acting bureau chief in Moscow, says that Vice News reporter Simon Ostrovsky has been freed after nearly two days of captivity in Sloviansk.
J-Francois Belanger, a foreign correspondent in Moscow for CBC television, says that Ostrovsky is currently in a CBC car traveling from Sloviansk to Donetsk.
Ostrovsky was taken hostage on April 22 by Russian-backed separatists in Sloviansk.
Vice News issued the following statement:
"VICE News is delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health. We would like to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time. Out of respect for Simon and his family's privacy, we have no further statement at this time."
At 8:45 p.m., Ostrovsky tweeted: "I'm out and safe. Thank you all for your support. Had no idea I had so many good friends."
-- Isaac Webb
Deputy Foreign Minister Lubkivsky suggests Ukraine needs lethal aid to defend its borders
7:09 p.m. -- Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. on April 24, deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky said that Ukraine "would definitely be interested to gain all necessary means to protect our country.”
When asked whether Ukraine is asking the U.S. to provide it with weapons to defend its eastern border against a Russian invasion, Lubkivsky said, “We have to protect Ukraine against the aggression. All possible means that may help in this case should be used.”
BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray first reported Lubkivsky's remarks. -- Isaac Webb
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Uneasy standoff in Ukraine's pro-Russian stronghold of Slavyansk
Opinion divided on Kiev's actions, but army holds back from storming town, which is firmly in the hands of separatists
Ukraine
armoured vehicles skirmished with separatists on the edge of Slavyansk,
but stopped short of attacking the town. Photograph: Pierre Crom/Le
Journal/Sipa/Rex
By late
afternoon on Thursday it was a surprisingly tranquil scene. A few people
stood and chatted at a militia checkpoint leading into Slavyansk over a
bridge. A Russian tricolour flew above a wall of tyres. Next to it was
the flag of the "Donetsk People's Republic". The armed pro-Russian
separatists who hijacked the town in eastern Ukraine almost three weeks ago were still in business. Earlier they had fended off a demonstrative mini-attack by the Ukrainian army.
Six miles down the road, past several crumbling Soviet-era factories and a sliver of forest, was a crossroads. Here, the Ukrainian forces had set up a new checkpoint of their own. Soldiers dressed in black body armour and helmets inspected vehicles driving up and down in the afternoon sunshine. An armoured personnel carrier half-blocked the road; from the adjacent field came the clang of shovels, as troops dug in for the night.
"We arrived here this morning," Dima, a 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier said. What were his orders? "We've been told to search all cars. The idea is to stop any weapons from reaching Slavyansk." A giant blue and yellow Ukrainian flag flew from Dima's armoured vehicle. "It's a BMD-1. Good but old," he said. Another soldier, 30-year-old Vyacheslav, said his battalion, the 25th, had arrived from the city of Dnipropetrovsk.
Earlier on Thursday, other Ukrainian armoured vehicles had skirmished with separatists on the outskirts of the city. The column destroyed several militia checkpoints, transforming ramshackle barricades into smouldering rubber pyres. The assault took place in several places. The troops cleared a militia blockade next to a disused animal feed factory, as well as another rustic roadblock to the city's north-west.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov had announced the "anti-terrorist operation" against pro-Russian gunmen who control a patchwork of municipal buildings across the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. For a moment on Thursday it appeared Ukrainian troops were about to storm Slavyansk – a small, usually sleepy provincial town, which has become the de facto rebel capital.
After burning down a couple of barricades, however, the army pulled out, retreating towards the nearby town of Malynovka. According to the pro-Russian militia, one man waiting at a bus stop was killed in the morning shoot-out, and another injured. Vyacheslav Ponomarev – the self-appointed mayor of Slavyansk – said mines planted in a field had blocked the advance. He said that he would turn the town into a second Stalingrad. But Ukrainian forces seemed reluctant to play the role of aggressors.
Opinions among locals were divided as to who was to blame for this not-quite war. "Everything inside the city is peaceful now. There are no Ukrainian troops there," said Alexander, a 43-year-old taxi driver. "But what government uses an army against its own people? It's a crime. The army is supposed to defend us, not attack us. These people in power in Kiev don't listen." Alexander complained that gunfire was bad for business, adding that the price of water in Slavyansk was extortionate, even though the city sits on Donetsk's northern canal.
Another local, Oleg, however, was scathing about the heavily-armed militia who had taken over Slavyansk's executive committee building and police station. The government in Kiev says that among the militia are undercover Russian soldiers who first appeared in Crimea when Moscow launched its stealth invasion of the Black Sea peninsula. Ukrainians have nicknamed these masked Russian forces who carry automatic weapons but no insignia "little green men".
"How would you like it if 400 little green men turned up and took over your town?" Oleg – who declined to give his second name – wanted to know. "Obviously it's crap. We have guys roaming the streets with guns and masks."
But didn't the public support them? "No. We have a couple of million voters here. Five thousand people can't decide for everyone." He said Slavyansk's existing legislative structures were still intact – a local council, and an elected mayor, now imprisoned by the militia. "People voted for her," Oleg said bitterly.
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Six miles down the road, past several crumbling Soviet-era factories and a sliver of forest, was a crossroads. Here, the Ukrainian forces had set up a new checkpoint of their own. Soldiers dressed in black body armour and helmets inspected vehicles driving up and down in the afternoon sunshine. An armoured personnel carrier half-blocked the road; from the adjacent field came the clang of shovels, as troops dug in for the night.
"We arrived here this morning," Dima, a 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier said. What were his orders? "We've been told to search all cars. The idea is to stop any weapons from reaching Slavyansk." A giant blue and yellow Ukrainian flag flew from Dima's armoured vehicle. "It's a BMD-1. Good but old," he said. Another soldier, 30-year-old Vyacheslav, said his battalion, the 25th, had arrived from the city of Dnipropetrovsk.
Earlier on Thursday, other Ukrainian armoured vehicles had skirmished with separatists on the outskirts of the city. The column destroyed several militia checkpoints, transforming ramshackle barricades into smouldering rubber pyres. The assault took place in several places. The troops cleared a militia blockade next to a disused animal feed factory, as well as another rustic roadblock to the city's north-west.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov had announced the "anti-terrorist operation" against pro-Russian gunmen who control a patchwork of municipal buildings across the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. For a moment on Thursday it appeared Ukrainian troops were about to storm Slavyansk – a small, usually sleepy provincial town, which has become the de facto rebel capital.
After burning down a couple of barricades, however, the army pulled out, retreating towards the nearby town of Malynovka. According to the pro-Russian militia, one man waiting at a bus stop was killed in the morning shoot-out, and another injured. Vyacheslav Ponomarev – the self-appointed mayor of Slavyansk – said mines planted in a field had blocked the advance. He said that he would turn the town into a second Stalingrad. But Ukrainian forces seemed reluctant to play the role of aggressors.
Opinions among locals were divided as to who was to blame for this not-quite war. "Everything inside the city is peaceful now. There are no Ukrainian troops there," said Alexander, a 43-year-old taxi driver. "But what government uses an army against its own people? It's a crime. The army is supposed to defend us, not attack us. These people in power in Kiev don't listen." Alexander complained that gunfire was bad for business, adding that the price of water in Slavyansk was extortionate, even though the city sits on Donetsk's northern canal.
Another local, Oleg, however, was scathing about the heavily-armed militia who had taken over Slavyansk's executive committee building and police station. The government in Kiev says that among the militia are undercover Russian soldiers who first appeared in Crimea when Moscow launched its stealth invasion of the Black Sea peninsula. Ukrainians have nicknamed these masked Russian forces who carry automatic weapons but no insignia "little green men".
"How would you like it if 400 little green men turned up and took over your town?" Oleg – who declined to give his second name – wanted to know. "Obviously it's crap. We have guys roaming the streets with guns and masks."
But didn't the public support them? "No. We have a couple of million voters here. Five thousand people can't decide for everyone." He said Slavyansk's existing legislative structures were still intact – a local council, and an elected mayor, now imprisoned by the militia. "People voted for her," Oleg said bitterly.
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